


Oblivious

by sp8cialAwar3ness



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Friendship, Kai is stupid, M/M, Oblivious Pining, Sibling Banter, high school au (?), movie??? inspired??, so is Cole, they're still ninjas tho?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 00:44:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15919515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sp8cialAwar3ness/pseuds/sp8cialAwar3ness
Summary: “Dude.” Nya starts. “What happened last night?”“What? nothing happened last night.” He tries to avoid the topic as best as he could and well, it was true.Nya gives him a look of disappointment and Kai fidgets where he stands. He skims a hand through his hair, avoiding eye contact. His mind races but he decides to let what he was feeling go. This was his sister, she’d say I told you so but she’d understand.“Nya, I think I’m in love with my best friend and I didn’t realise.”--In which Cole seems to be having a bad night and Kai's willing to help his bro out from a slump.





	Oblivious

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! I'm very new to this fic thing ; v ; but I love lava so much im in tears!! there may be a part 2 to this!! but ill work it on it slowly!! Thank you for reading!
> 
> Edit!!
> 
> I forgot to say this is a high school au! but they're all still ninjas? so maybe just heavily influenced from the movie au aaa??

 

A buzz wakes him up.

Kai’s eyes blink fervently open, he sees nothing but the pitch black of his room and his brain registers that it might be better to go back to bed. Because its soft and fluffy and better than being awake.

But he feels another buzz.

This time he gets up, with a soft groan and whine of annoyance. He opens his eyes again, letting them adapt to the dark around him before he reaches for his phone. Set atop another pillow, charger chord resting on his bed.

The phone clicks open and Kai winces at the bright light suddenly shone on his face and gives himself a few moments to get used to that too. Yet before he could really get going, unlock his phone and reply to whatever message was sent to him, his phone buzzes excitedly. Taking the plunge he answers his phone, voice still stretched from just waking up.

“Yeah? Whatsit”  

“Tonight sucked.” Coles voice comes booming out of the phone.

Not actually booming, his voice is super soft but when there’s a phone call in a super quiet, super dark room. It tends to sound louder than it actually is.

“Yeah?” Is all Kai could reply with.

“Shit, sorry were you asleep?”

“I mean yeah, I was, s’late.”

“It’s like 9 pm.”

Kai didn’t know how to respond to that, he didn’t even remember taking a nap.

 

“Is it fucking really?” 

 

And Cole laughs, which makes Kai feel better because he sounded like a kicked puppy when he first answered the call. 

“I’m glad I made you laugh. What happened tonight? Sorry if you told me bro, as you can tell I literally just woke up.”

“Thing with my Dad.” Is all Cole says and Kai could only form an ‘ _oh_ ’ from his mouth.

“Shit. Sorry I wasn’t awake to offer some moral support and shitty memes.” Kai apologises while reaching for his lamp set on his drawer. He lets out a hiss as he successfully turns it on. Looking down on himself he realises he hasn’t gotten out of his school uniform.

“Hopefully everyone else did though?”

“Yeah kinda.” Cole mutters from the other end.

“Kinda?”

“Y’know your sister and Jay had a thing-” 

“Oh yeah, date night.” Kai gets up from his comfortable mountain of pillows and expertly makes his way out of his school uniform. Hopping on one leg as he tries to shove his pants off.

“Yeah, plus Zane and Pixal are tutoring Lloyd. So.”

“Ah.” Kai finally kicks his pants free off his legs and to the other side of the room, landing on a pile of unused (used? He needs to sort that out) clothes. “Well I’m free now.” 

“I was hoping since it’s why I called.”

“Woah, you already outside of my house?”

Cole laughs and it makes Kai’s heart flutter for a second before he takes note of it.

“Nah, I was gonna ask first then make my way. I’ll take it you passed out right after school?”

“Yep.” Kai emphasises the ‘p’. “You know me so well.”

“That’s what bros are for, plus you never get to bed before 12 am.” Kai laughs in agreement at that statement before taking a quick whiff of air.

“I’m hanging up now. See you in 5?”

“Yea dude.”

 

The click of the phone and Kai makes his way to his closet to pick out his clothes.

\----

When Kai clampers downstairs he tugs on his wool sweater (red, it’s his colour), rubbing his eyes at more light. He tucks his phone in his jean pocket, making his way to the living room. Nya sits alone at the couch, chomping on popcorn, tubs of ice cream still laid on the coffee table.

 

“Fun date night?” Kai calls out and Nya turns back to her brother.

“Yea, s’good! What are you doing up? Last time I checked you were 10 feet underneath a pile of pillows and blankets.” She snarks and he laughs.

“Oh I was but- hey I’ve been meaning to ask but where’s my lanyard.” Kai quickly shifts the subject. “You had it last.”

“Hey go back to explaining why you’re out of your grave! It’s at the flower pot, you threw it in there.” Nya gestures to wherever the pot may be.

“I- What?” Kai still makes his way to the flower pot at the edge of their living room, sitting on the windowsill of the big window where sunlight normally shines the brightest. To his surprise the lanyard sits there, ID and keys attached to it. “Thanks. Anyway, Cole called, tough night apparently.”

“Yeah? He didn’t message the chat the whole night.” Nya calls back.

“Oh? Well, guess its a bro night now.” Kai laughs, stuffing the lanyard in his other pocket.

“You mean date night part two.” Nya chimes.

Kai freezes, turning to his sister at the other side of the room whom, is nonchalantly eating more popcorn. Nya looks back to him feeling his gaze and raises an eyebrow.

"What?” Kai finally speaks and Nya has to stop herself from choking with laughter.

“It was a _joke_ , I’m _joking_.”

“I know!” Kai waves his hands around. “I mean like, I know, you know, it was joking but you know, caught me off guard.”

“Mhm!” Nya chuckles again. “Geez Kai chill, your face is burning up.”

“It’s what?” Kai pauses. “No it’s not.” It definitely was.

Nya opens her mouth to make another quick quip but she jumps in her seat as the doorbell rings. Kai doesn’t know whether to thank the gods above or just Cole himself for this intervention but takes his chances and makes his way to the door. As he pulls on the door knob he gasps at the sudden embrace from the man who just entered the room.

“Thanks so much for this dude.” Cole immediately speaks and Kai couldn’t help but gasp.

 “It’s okay, dude I gotchu. Anything to help a bro out.” Kai accepts the embrace, patting his back and smiling. He pulls back from the hug, giving space between them and smiles at the taller man in front of him.

“Let’s get going?” He gestures to out of the house and Cole smiles back.

“Yeah, yeah that’s cool.” Before he makes his way out, he looks over to a Nya with a crooked smile. “Hey Nya.” 

“Hey Cole. Have fun with your date.” Nya waves to them from the couch sliding over to lying down now.

“Bro Date Nya.” Kai chimes. “Hey, don’t eat while lying down, you’ll choke.”

“Yeah Nya.” Cole agrees whether to both statements neither of the other two are sure.

“God I hate both of you, I’m the water ninja, I won’t die from choking. Have fun with your ‘Bro Date’.” She mutters and waves them off.

The other two look to each other, laughing then making their way out. Kai takes a step outside before locking the door, he realises something for a moment and gestures Cole to wait for him. He makes his way back to the house, upon seeing his sister finally get up to clean the place, he smirks.

“Nice of you to clean up.” Kai comments and Nya looks back at him with surprise.

“Wow date didn’t go so well already?” She laughs again when Kai chokes.

“C’mon Nya, you know it’s not a date.” He whines. “I just came back to tell you. You can go straight to bed, no waiting on me, I have the keys.”

“Is it really not a date?” Nya huffs, picking up the empty tubs of ice cream.

“We’re just hanging out.” Kai fires back and falters for a moment seeing Nya’s rebirthed smirk.

“What do you think me and Jay do on date night?” She bites back and Kai groans.

“Not the same, you two are dating. Cole and I? nope.” He waves a hand of dismissal, watching his sister walk over to the kitchen.

“Wouldn’t you want that to be different?” He hears Nya yell. 

“What? No! I’m not in love with him or something.” And Kai doesn’t like feeling his heart skip. “We’re just bros!”

“Bros being dudes Kai, Dudes being Bros.” Nya says, wiping her hands together.

“Yeah, exactly!” Kai nods and Nya sighs. 

“I was _kidding again,_ it’s a joke. C’mon big brother you can’t fool me. How you look at him is how I look at Jay, or how Zane looks at Pixal, or how Lloyd looks at- ” She shakes her head. “Anyway. You know what I mean." 

Kai only groans as he grasps the door handle and clicks it open.

“No Nya. I have no idea.” He mutters, looking forward.

The brunette slowly closes the door and stomps his way to Cole’s car. Chest tight, he opens the door to the passenger seat and slides in, meeting Cole’s gaze for a moment before looking out the window.  

“Damn, what’d she say to make you in a bad mood now?” Cole laughs and Kai pushes down the blush he feels coming on.

“Oh, you know. Sisters. They just love getting on your nerves.” Kai pats the dashboard of the car, smirking at Cole.

“Well I know Nya well enough to get where you’re coming from.” Cole smirks back.

They stay looking at each other, smirking, before bursting out in laughter. A few minutes and the laughter softens as they settle in their seats to take a breath listening to the quiet. Kai leans an elbow by the window, looking back at his house. His gaze shifts back to Cole who gets the car going with the turn of a key, and the pull of the gear shift. The rev of the vehicle doesn’t keep Kai’s mind off of the events that were transpiring tonight. He stays quiet, trying to observe Cole’s movements as he drives the car. He searches for something, an indication about how he’s feeling. He’s known Cole close to forever now and he knows that Cole’s more of a physical person than a talker. So if something were to be bothering him, he’d see it. 

He doesn’t quite understand why Cole seems so normal. Albeit his shoulders seem tense, but Cole’s always tense about driving so things don’t click yet. 

“Something up?” Cole says and Kai stops himself from jumping in his seat.

“I should be the one asking you that.” He complies.

“Well you were staring, I had to know.” That makes Kai groan.

“Shit, was I really? Sorry dude.” He skims a hand through his hair before looking forward to the road ahead. “You just seem fine tonight.”

“You’re saying like it’s a bad thing.” Cole mutters, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“What? No, it’s not _bad_. I just.” Kai looks to Cole and Cole looks to him for a moment before looking back on the road. “You’re normally easy to read bro. Like I know you well enough that if something is bothering you, you tend to physically show it rather than say it.”

Silence hangs above them for a few minutes before Kai begins to panic. Why did neither of them decide to turn on the radio, this is going to kill him.

“But like, it isn’t like a bad thing, it’s-“

“Dude. It’s cool, I just didn’t realise I did that.” And the smile Cole gives him could kill him right on the spot. “Like, at all bro.”

“Oh.” Kai smiles too. “Feel like someone would have let you know.”

“Nah.” Cole moves a hand away from the steering wheel to wave at him dismissively. “Think it’s some unspoken thing a bunch of the guys never think of saying.” 

“Well if it helps I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Feelings are hard dude.” Kai sighs. “You just never know what to do with them.”

“Bro, dude, seriously. Are _you_ okay? Maybe this trip should be more for me than for you.” Cole says and Kai laughs.

“Dude can’t I be serious for like a sec? this is what the trip is for right?” Kai says, face slightly red from embarrassment.

“I mean. Yeah.” Cole smiles and the car reaches to a stop. “We’re here.”

‘Here’ is a forest the ninjas found early in their training. Master Wu suggested somewhere else secluded to train other than the dojo because it’s good to have multiple training grounds. So they stumbled upon this place, just outside the city, about 15 minutes away drive from civilisation. It’s still an important place to train but they’ve been avoiding it as of late since a civilian camping saw them sparring and told everyone the ninja trained there. So right now, they don’t really do anything with it but it is a good place to hang out.

The two of them get out of the car, making their way into the darkened woods. Kai looks up at the silhouettes of the trees. He pulls his phone from his pocket and turns on the flashlight.

“Thank god for phones.” Kai laughs as he shines it on Cole.

“Ow! Dude!” Cole laughs as well, turning away and making his way deeper into the bush. “C’mon man.”

“I’ll be your light!” Kai calls out and Cole laughs again.

“Why don’t you just use your fire?” Cole says as Kai catches up with him down the trail.

“You want me to burn down a forest? Geez man.” Kai says and Cole shakes his head, holding out his hand.

Kai looks up at him with confusion, grabbing onto the hand anyway. Cole intertwineds his fingers with Kai’s and the brunettes breath stops.

“Oh sweet you’re warm.” Cole absentmindedly speaks and Kai has to stop himself from choking on air. 

“W-What?” Kai coughs out and Cole meets his gaze a flicker of realisation, oblivious to the blush on Kai’s face.

“It’s cold. I forget you’re like, always warm.” Cole comments, then tugs his hand. “C’mon we’re going off trail. I found someplace.”

Kai nod sheepishly, quickly switching the flashlight on his phone off. He tries to not think about how Cole is holding onto his hand very tight, how he looks very pretty under the soft moonlight that seeps through the trees. Occasionally Cole looks back and Kai can only nod to show that he’s okay, that he’s definitely not ogling his bro right now, definitely paying attention to where they’re going.

Wait.

“Where exactly is this someplace?” Kai questions.

“C’mon Kai I’m not going to murder you.”

“You realise that wasn’t my first thought right, you’ve established you’re going to murder me.”

Cole lets out a laugh then stops moving. He gestures to a bush and pulls it away revealing to Kai the edge of the forest, a cliff. The cliff was open, albeit a few bushes scattered around near the forest area but the night sky was bright as if they were nowhere close to the city. Kai goes wide eyed as the stars sparkle bright. He stops gaping as he hears Cole chuckle softly.

“What?” Kai raises and eyebrow.

For a moment he wasn’t sure if he saw an uncertain look on the other mans face. Cole looks to the stars, seemingly avoiding Kai’s.

“S’cool huh?” Cole nods up and Kai looks again.

“Yea, when’d you find this?”

“While back.” 

Cole leads Kai to the cliff, urging him to sit by the edge. ‘We won’t die.’ Cole reasoned, unspoken but the look he gave Kai translated to it. Kai obliged, sitting on the ground and crossing his legs. Cole joins him leaning back on his palms he sighs, staring up at the stars again.

“Soo..” Kai mumbles. “What happened?”

He watches as Cole locks his eyes with him. The darker skinned man adjusted his posture, shrugging.

“I mean, not much. Talked with my dad. Just said somethings.”

The moonlight shone brighter above them, it’s much later than when they first started talking about this venture. Kai realises that Cole is more illuminated, his face softly lit. If he didn’t know any better he would have claimed that Cole was blushing under the pale light.

“What stuff?” Kai asks.

“Just, things? I wasn’t bothered by him talking to me.” _Not this time_ Kai knew Cole didn’t say.

“So what was bothering you?” 

Cole shrugs, eyes looking down to the ground. 

“You ever... “ He trails off. 

Kai slides closer, urging Cole to speak with a shared look of comfort. He places a hand on the others shoulder.

“Ever what?” 

Cole looks to him properly and Kai can’t help but note _how good he looks right now_ , but he shoves down those thoughts. _He’s here for his friend_.

Cole’s face softens, eyes shining, looking for something in Kais. The other man can tell he wants something, but doesn’t know exactly what to give, so he gives him a smile. 

“Just think about how we have to be a secret.” Cole whispers.

“Ah.” Kai lets out.

He’s thought about it, how it’s unfair that they’re heroes of the day (almost every day) but can’t say it out loud. He’s thankful his parents know as they were once masters of fire and water but Cole hasn’t said anything to his father yet. He can’t imagine having that lack of support.

“Yea. It sucks.” Is all he could muster, leaning closer to Cole. “We can’t do anything can we? Gotta keep everyone around us safe.” It was a shitty answer, Kai knew but he didn’t know what else to say.

For a second the other man looks confused, biting his lip he pulls himself farther from Kai.

“I mean, I get it. To keep everyone around us safe we keep our identities a secret.” Cole mutters as he turns away, shifting his body to look properly at the sky.

“It just sucks.” Cole whispers.

“It does.” Kai agrees,

Kai shuffles forward, he leans by Cole’s side comfortably and looks up to him. The other man doesn’t budge, still looking above.

“Look at me bro. I’m here for you. This is why we’re out here. Clear our heads, talk.” Kai urges the other man.

 

Cole finally turns, looking at him properly. He looks grateful but with a sad smile. For a few moments Kai wasn’t sure what he was going to do, Cole looked like he wanted to speak, to say something. Yet then he leans forward, pressing his forehead against the other’s. Kai could feel his face warming up at the unexpected contact. 

“Thanks.” Cole barely whispers.

It took all of Kai’s self control not to kiss him then and there.

——-

The next morning Kai is left with an unbearable need to second guess everything that was happening. He changed out of his school outfit a few times (which was dumb, he has the same look every day), checked his phone various amounts of times (the group chat hasn't updated) and searched for his lanyard for ten minutes for various intervals knowing full well it was hanging from his pocket.

His behaviour didn’t go unnoticed, especially by his family enjoying breakfast downstairs. As Kai had joined them, reaching for the cereal, he raises an eyebrow at all the looks they were giving giving him.

“Kai, is everything okay?” his mother asks softly.

“What yeah, s’cool mom. just been having a messy morning.” Kai admits.

His parents give each other a look before shrugging and going back to their breakfast procedures. Nya mutters something quickly as she gets up from the table, pulling her brother up as she walks past. Kai sputters in confusion as he lets himself be lead just by the stairs, away from their parents eyes.

“Dude.” Nya starts. “What happened last night?”

“What? nothing happened last night.” He tries to avoid the topic as best as he could and well, it was true.

Nya gives him a look of disappointment and Kai fidgets where he stands. He skims a hand through his hair, avoiding eye contact. His mind races but he decides to let what he was feeling go. This was his sister, she’d say I told you so but she’d understand.

“Nya, I think I’m in love with my best friend and I didn’t realise.”


End file.
